THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

GIFT  OF 

Perigord 


MAKING 
YOUR  OWN  WORLD 

Being  the  Second  of  a  Series  of 

Twelve  Volumes  on  the  Applications 

of  Psychology  to  the  Problems  of 

Personal  and  Business 

Efficiency 


ISSUED  UNDER 
THE  AUSPICES  OF 

THE  SOCIETY  OF  APPLIED 
PSYCHOLOGY 


COPYRIGHT    I  9  14 

BY  THE  APPLIED  PSYCHOLOGY  PRESS 

SAN   FRANCISCO 


CONTENTS 

Chapter 

I.  THE   TWO    FUNDAMENTAL    PROC- 

ESSES OF  MIND  p,^, 

MIND  AS  A   MEANS  TO  ATTAINMENT  3 

THREE  POSTULATES  FOR  THIS  COURSE  4 

EXPERIENCE  AND  ABSTRACTIONS  5 

PRIMARY  MENTAL   OPERATIONS  6 

II.  SENSATIONS   AND    OUR    PERCEP- 

TION OF  THEM 

mind's  SOURCE  OF  SUPPLIES  9 

DOES  MATTER  EXIST?  ID 

FIRST-HAND   KNOWLEDGE  I  I 

SECOND-HAND   KNOWLEDGE  I  2 

ETHERIC  VIBRATIONS  AS  CAUSING   SENSATIONS  I  3 

THE  ROAD  TO  PERCEPTION  I  4 

THE    PLACE   WHERE   SENSATION  OCCURS  I  5 
LABORATORY    PROOF    OF    SENSE-PERCEPTIVE 

PROCESS  16 

REACTION-TIME  I  7 

THE  HUMAN   TELEPHONE  I  8 

THE  LIVING  TELEGRAPH  I  9 

THE  SIX  STEPS   TO   REACTION  20 

UNOPENED   MENTAL   MAIL  2  I 

SELECTIVE  PROCESS  THAT  DETERMINES  CONDUCT  2  2 

IN  TUNE   WITH    LIFE-INTEREST  23 

PRACTICAL   ASPECTS   OF  PERCEPTION   PROCESS  24 


630031 


29 

31 


Contents 

Chapter 

III.  SENSORY  ILLUSIONS  AND 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  THEIR  USE    p,^, 

UNRELIABILITY  OF  SENSE-ORGANS  ZJ 

BEING  AND  SEEMING 

USE  OF  ILLUSIONS   IN  BUSINESS 

MAKING  AN  ARTICLE  LOOK  BIG  32 

TESTING  THE   CONFIDENTIAL   MAN  33 

TESTS  FOR  CREDULITY  34 

WHAT  COLORS  LOOK  NEAREST  35 

TESTING  THE   RANGE  OF  ATTENTION  36 

A   GUIDE    TO   OCCUPATIONAL  SELECTION  37 

TEST  FOR  ATTENTION  TO   DETAILS  38 

OTHER   BUSINESS  APPLICATIONS  39 

IV.  INWARDNESS  OF  ENVIRONMENT 

FACTORS  OF  SUCCESS  OR   FAILURE  43 

SHOULD  SEEING  BE   BELIEVING?  44 

HEARING    THE  LIGHTNING  46 

IMPORTANCE  OF  THE   MENTAL    MAKE-UP  47 

UNREALITY  OF   "THE   REAL"  48 

**THINGS"   AND  THEIR   MENTAL  DUPLICATES  49 

EFFECT  OF  CLOSING   ONe's  EYES  50 

IF  MATTER  WERE   ANNIHILATED  5  I 

IF  MIND  WERE   ANNIHILATED  52 

AS  MANY  WORLDS  AS  MINDS  53 

V.  ESSENTIAL  LAW  OF  PRACTICAL 

SELF-MASTERY 

OPTION  AND   OPPORTUNITY  57 

PRE-ARRANGING  YOUR  CONSCIOUSNESS  58 

HOW  TO  DEFINITELY  SELECT  ITS  ELEMENTS  59 


Contents 

Paee 

AN  INFALLIBLE   RECIPE   FOR  SELF-POSSESSION  6o 

USING   "UNSEEN   EAR   PROTECTORS"  6  I 

HOW  TO  AVOID  WORRY,   MELANCHOLY  6z 

PUTTING  CIRCUMSTANCES  UNDER   FOOT  63 

RUNNING  YOUR   MENTAL  FACTORY  64 

ACQUIRING  MENTAL  BALANCE  65 

DISSIPATING   MENTAL  SPECTERS  66 

HOW  TO   CONTROL  YOUR   DESTINY  67 


THE  TWO  FUNDAMENTAL 
PROCESSES  OF  MIND 


Chapter  I 

THE  TWO  FUNDAMENTAL 

PROCESSES  OF  MIND 


I 


N  THE  preceding  book,  "  Psychol-     v/^a/  as  a 

Mfiins  to 

ogy  and  Achievement,"  we  estab-     Attainment 
lished  the  truth  of  two  proposi- 
tions : 


I.  y^//  human  achievement  comes 
about  through  bodily  activity. 

II.  All  bodily  activity  is  caused,  con- 
trolled and  directed  by  the  mind. 

To  these  two  fundamental  proposi- 
tions we  now  append  a  third,  which 
needs  no  proof,  but  follows  as  a  natural 
and  logical  conclusion  from  the  other 
two: 


Course 


A  Applied  Psychology 

Three         III.   The  Mind  is  the  instrument  you 

Postulates  i         r  i  i-    i  r 

for  this    must  employ  for  the  accomplishment  of 
any  purpose. 

With  these  three  fundamental  prop- 
ositions as  postulates,  it  will  be  the 
end  and  aim  of  this  Course  of  Reading 
to  develop  plain,  simple  and  specific 
methods  and  directions  for  the  most 
efficient  use  of  the  mind  in  the  attain- 
ment of  practical  ends. 

To  comprehend  these  mental  meth- 
ods and  to  make  use  of  them  in  busi- 
ness affairs  you  must  thoroughly  under- 
stand the  two  fundamental  processes  of 
the  mind. 

These  two  fundamental  processes  are 
the  Sense-Perceptive  Process  and  the 
Judicial  Process. 

The  Sense-Perceptive  Process  is  the 


Making  Your  Own  World        r 

process  by  which  knowledge  is  acquired    E.vpcnciu. 
through  the  senses.    Knowledge  is  the    Abstmctwus 
result  of  experience  and  all  human  ex- 
perience is  made  up  of  sense-percep- 
tions. 

The  Judicial  Process  is  the  reasoning 
and  reflective  process.  It  is  the  purely 
"intellectual"  type  of  mental  operation. 
It  deals  wholly  in  abstractions.  Ab- 
stractions are  constructed  out  of  past 
experiences. 

Consequently,  the  Sense-Perceptive 
Process  furnishes  the  raw  material, 
sense-perceptions  or  experience,  for  the 
machinery  of  the  Judicial  Process  to 
work  with. 

In  this  book  we  shall  give  you  a  clear 
idea  of  the  Sense-Perceptive  Process 
and  show  you  some  of  the  ways  in  which 


Applied  Psychology 


pnmoiy     an  Understanding  of  this  process  will  be 
'trial, n„s     useful  to  you  in  everyday  affairs.   The 
succeeding  book  will  explain  the  Judi- 
cial Process. 


SENSATIONS 

AND  OUR  PERCEPTION 

OF  THEM 


Chapter  II 

SENSATIONS 

AND  OUR  PERCEPTION 

OF  THEM 


HATEVER   you    know,    or    Mind's  Soma 

think  you  know,  of  the 


^T7 

^L/  ^J  external  world  comes  to 
▼       ▼  you  through  some  one 

of  your  five  primary  senses,  sight,  hear- 
ing, touch,  taste  and  smell,  or  some  one 
of  the  secondary  senses,  such  as  the 
muscular  sense  and  the  sense  of  heat 
and  cold. 

The  impressions  you  receive  in  this 
way  may  be  true  or  they  may  be  false. 
They  may  constitute  absolute  knowl- 


Ihu's  .iJ^illci- 
Exist:' 


I  o  Applied  Psychology 

edge  or  they  may  be  merely  mistaken 
impressions.  Yet,  such  as  they  are,  they 
constitute  all  the  information  you  have 
or  can  have  concerning  the  world  about 
you. 

Philosophers  have  been  wrangling 
for  some  thousands  of  years  as  to 
whether  we  have  any  real  and  absolute 
knowledge,  as  to  whether  matter  actu- 
ally does  or  does  not  exist,  as  to  the  re- 
liability or  unreliability  of  the  impres- 
sions we  receive  through  the  senses. 
But  there  is  one  thing  that  all  scientific 
men  are  agreed  upon,  and  that  is  that 
such  knowledge  as  we  do  possess  comes 
to  us  by  way  of  perception  through  the 
organs  of  sense. 

If  you  have  never  given  much 
thought  to  this  subject,  you  have  nat- 


Making  Tour  Ow?t  World        \  \ 

urally  assumed  that  you  have  direct 
knowledge  of  all  the  material  things 
that  you  seem  to  perceive  about  you.  It 
has  never  occurred  to  you  that  there  are 
intervening  physical  agencies  that  you 
ought  to  take  into  account. 

When  you  look  up  at  the  clock,  you 
instinctively  feel  that  there  is  nothing 
interposed  between  it  and  your  mind 
that  is  conscious  of  it.  You  seem  to  feel 
that  your  mind  reaches  out  and  envel- 
ops it. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  your  sense-im- 
pression of  that  bit  of  furniture  must 
filter  through  a  great  number  of  inter- 
vening physical  agencies  before  you 
can  become  conscious  of  it. 

Direct  perception  of  an  outside  re- 
ality is  impossible. 


I  list-hand 
Knoii'led^e 


Seco)id-hand 
Knozvledi't 


1 2  Applied  Psychology 

Before  you  can  become  aware  of  any 
object  there  must  first  arise  between  it 
and  your  mind  a  chain  of  countless  dis- 
tinct physical  events. 

Modern  science  tells  us  that  both 
light  and  sound  are  due  to  undulations 
or  wave-like  vibrations  of  the  ether. 
These  vibrations  are  transmitted  from 
one  particle  of  ether  to  another,  and  so 
from  the  thing  perceived  to  the  body 
of  man. 

Think,  then,  what  crisscross  of  ether 
currents  and  confusion  of  ether  vibra- 
tions, what  myriad  of  physical  events, 
must  intervene  between  any  distant  ob- 
ject and  your  own  body  before  sensa- 
tions come  and  bring  you  a  conscious- 
ness of  that  object's  existence! 

Nor  can  you  be  sure,  even  after  any 


Making  Tour  Own  World        \  n 
particular  vibration   has    reached   the     f^iin-nc 

^  _  .'  'ibratioiis  as 

surface  of  your  body,  that  it  will  reach     Causing 

J  J    .  ,  Sciisatious 

your  mind  unaltered  and  intact! 

What  goes  on  in  the  body  itself  is 
made  clear  by  your  knowledge  of  the 
cellular  structure  of  man. 

You  know  that  you  have  a  system  of 
nerves  centering  in  the  brain  and  with 
countless  ramifications  throughout  the 
structural  tissues  of  the  body. 

You  know  that  part  of  these  nerves 
are  sensory  nerves  and  part  of  them  are 
motor  nerves.  You  know  that  the  sen- 
sory nerves  convey  to  the  brain  the  im- 
pressions received  from  the  outer  world 
and  that  the  motor  nerves  relay  this 
information  to  the  rest  of  the  body 
coupled  with  commands  for  appropri- 
ate muscular  action. 


I  ^  Applied  Psychology 

\  he  Road        The  outcr  end  of  every  sensory  nerve 

'Perception  .   .         ,  .         . 

exposes  a  sensitive  bit  or  gray  matter. 
These  sensitive,  impression-receiving 
ends  constitute  together  what  is  called 
the  "sensorium"  of  the  body. 

When  vibrations  of  light  or  sound 
impinge  upon  the  sensorium,  they  are 
relayed  from  nerve  cell  to  nerve  cell 
until  they  reach  the  central  brain. 
Then  it  is,  and  not  until  then,  that  sen- 
sations and  perceptions  occur. 

Consider,  now,  the  infinitesimal  size 
of  a  nerve  cell  and  you  will  have  some 
conception  of  the  number  of  hands 
through  which  the  message  must  pass 
before  it  is  received  by  the  central 
office. 

Many  of  our  sensations,  especially 
those  of  touch,  seem  to  occur  on  the 


Hearing 
Center 


Motion 
Centor 


Center 


i>i.\(;ra\i  snowisf:  cui-:  lot'R  cmin-  association  cENiiiRS 

OF   1  HI-;  HL'MAN   IJRAIN 


Making  Your  Own  World 

periphery  of  the  body  —  that  is  to  say,  at 
that  part  of  the  exposed  surface  of  the 
body  which  is  apparently  affected.  If 
your  finger  is  crushed  in  a  door,  the 
sensation  of  the  blow  and  the  pain  all 
seem  to  occur  in  the  finger  itself. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  is  not  the 
case,  for  if  one  of  your  arms  should  be 
amputated,  you  would  still  feel  a  tin- 
gling in  the  fingers  of  the  amputated 
arm.  Thus  has  arisen  a  superstition 
that  leads  many  people  to  bury  any  part 
of  the  body  lost  in  this  way,  thinking 
that  they  will  never  be  entirely  relieved 
of  pain  until  the  absent  member  is 
finally  at  rest. 

Of  course,  the  fact  is  that  you  would 
only  seem  to  have  feeling  in  the  ampu- 
tated arm.   The  sensation  would  really 


15 


The  Place 
Where 
Sensation 
Occurs 


1 5  Applied  Psychology 


Laboratory   occuT  In  the  Central  brain  tissue  as  the 
^slnse-   organ  of  the  governing  intelligence,  the 
Perceptive   organ  of  consciousness. 

rrocess  ^ 

And  you  may  set  it  down  as  an 
established  principle  that  all  states  of 
consciousness f  whether  seemingly  local- 
ized on  the  surface  of  the  body  or  not, 
are  connected  with  the  brain  as  the  dom- 
inant center. 

The  facts  we  have  been  recounting 
have  been  established  by  the  experi- 
ments of  physiological  psychology. 
Thus,  the  work  of  the  laboratory  has 
shown  that  between  the  moment  when 
a  sense  vibration  reaches  the  body  and 
the  moment  when  sensation  occurs  a 
measurable  interval  of  time  intervenes. 

If  your  eyes  were  to  be  blindfolded 
and  your  hand  unexpectedly  pricked 


Time 


Making  Tour  Own  World        \  n 

with  a  white-hot  needle,  the  time  that    Rcaaion 
would  elapse  before  you   could  jerk 
your  hand  away  could  be  readily  meas- 
ured  in    fractions   of    a    second   with 
appropriate  instruments. 

This  interval  is  known  as  reaction- 
time.  It  varies  greatly  with  different 
persons.  During  this  reaction-time,  the 
cell  or  cells  attacked  upon  the  surface 
of  the  hand  have  conveyed  news  of  the 
assault  through  numberless  intermedi- 
ate sensory  nerve  cells  to  the  brain.  The 
brain  in  turn  has  sent  out  its  mandate 
through  the  appropriate  motor  nerve 
cells  to  all  the  muscle  and  other  cells 
surrounding  the  injured  cell,  command- 
ing them  to  remove  it  from  the  point  of 
danger. 

The  work  of  the  nervous  system  in 


I  8  Applied  Psychology 

The  Human    dealing  with  the  ether  vibrations  that 

Telephone  ,      .         .       . 

are  constantly  impinging  upon  the  sur- 
face of  the  body  has  been  likened  to  that 
of  the  transmitter,  connecting  wire  and 
receiver  of  a  telephone.  Air-waves 
striking  against  the  transmitter  of  the 
telephone  awaken  a  similar  vibratory 
movement  in  the  transmitter  itself. 
This  movement  is  passed  along  the  wire 
to  the  receiver,  which  vibrates  respon- 
sively  and  imparts  a  corresponding 
wave-like  motion  to  the  air. 

These  air-waves  when  heard  are 
what  we  call  sound. 

In  the  same  way,  air-waves  striking 
the  ear  are  communicated  by  the  audi- 
tory nerve  to  the  brain,  where  they 
awaken  a  corresponding  sensation  of 
sound.  But  these  waves  must  be  vibrat- 


Making  Your  Own  World         ig 
ing  at  between  14,000  and  40,000  times    i^^e  Uving 

Telegraph 

a  second.  If  they  are  vibrating  so  slowly 
or  so  rapidly  as  not  to  come  within  this 
range,  we  cannot  hear  them. 

This  process  is  by  no  means  a  me- 
chanical afifair.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a 
series  of  mental  acts.  Every  cell  in  the 
living  telegraph  must  receive  the  mes- 
sage and  transmit  it.  Every  cell  must 
exercise  a  form  of  intelligence,  from 
the  auditory  cell  reporting  a  sound- 
wave or  the  skin  cell  reporting  an  in- 
jury to  the  muscle  cells  that  ultimately 
receive  and  understand  a  message  di- 
recting them  to  remove  the  part  from 
danger. 

Reaction-time,  so  called,  is  thus  occu- 
pied by  cellular  action  in  the  form  of 
mental  processes   intervening  between 


20  Applied  Psychology 

The  stx  Steps  thc  nefvc-ends  and  the  brain  center,  in 

to  Reaction  i         ,  •    i  i  i 

much  the  same  way  that  light  and  sound 
vibrations  intervene  between  the  object 
perceived  and  the  surface  of  the  body. 
For  even  the  simplest  of  sense-per- 
ceptions we  have,  then,  this  sequence  of 
events:  first,  the  object  perceived;  sec- 
ond, the  series  of  vibrations  of  ether 
particles  intervening  between  the  ob- 
ject and  the  body;  third,  the  impression 
upon  the  surface  of  the  body;  fourth, 
the  series  of  mental  processes,  cell  after 
cell,  in  the  nerve  filaments  leading  to 
the  brain;  fifth,  when  these  impressions 
or  messages  have  reached  the  brain,  a 
determination  of  what  is  to  be  done; 
and,  sixth,  a  transmission  by  cellular  ac- 
tion of  a  new  message  that  will  awaken 
some  response  in  the  muscular  tissues. 


Making  Your  Own  World 


21 


This  process  is  completely  carried  Vnupened 
out,  however,  in  only  comparatively  ^,l"\{^ 
few  instances.  The  vast  majority  of 
sense-impressions  awaken  no  reaction. 
They  are  registered  in  the  mind,  but 
they  are  not  perceived.  We  are  not  con- 
scious of  them.  They  form  a  part,  not 
of  consciousness,  but  of  subconscious- 
ness. They  are  messages  that  reach  the 
mind  but  are  laid  aside  like  unopened 
mail  because  they  possess  no  present 
interest. 

Wherever  and  however  you  may  be 
placed,  you  are  always  and  everywhere 
immersed  in  a  flood  of  etheric  vibra- 
tions. Light,  sound  and  tactual  vibra- 
tions press  upon  you  from  every  side. 
At  a  busy  corner  of  a  city  street  these 
vibrations  rise  to  a  tumultuous  fortis- 


2  2  Applied  Psychology 

Seiecuve  simo ;  in  the  hush  of  a  night  upon  the 

Process  that 

Determines  plains  they  sink  to  pianissimo.   Yet  at 

Conduct 

every  moment  of  your  day  or  night  they 
are  there  in  greater  or  less  degree,  titil- 
lating the  unsleeping  nerve-ends  of  the 
sensorium. 

Your  mind  cannot  take  time  to  make 
all  these  sense-impressions  the  subject  of 
conscious  thought.  It  can  trouble  itself 
only  with  those  that  bear  in  some  way 
upon  your  interests  in  life. 

Your  mind  is  like  the  receiving  ap- 
paratus of  the  wireless  telegraph  which 
picks  from  the  air  those  particular  vi- 
brations to  which  it  is  attuned.  Your 
mind  is  selective.  It  is  discriminating. 
It  seizes  upon  those  few  sensory  images 
that  are  related  to  your  interests  in  life 
and  thrusts  them  forward  to  he  con- 


Making  Tour  Own  World       2  3 
sciously  perceived  and  acted  upon.   All    inTuneuith 

...  .  ,  .  Life-Interest 

others  it  diverts  into  a  subconscious 
reservoir  of  temporary  oblivion. 

You  will  have  a  clearer  understand- 
ing of  the  sense-perceptive  processes 
and  a  more  vital  realization  of  the  prac- 
tical significance  of  these  facts  v^hen 
you  consider  how  they  affect  your 
knowledge  of  material  things  and  your 
conception  of  the  external  world. 

This  subject  possesses  two  distinct  as- 
pects. 

One  aspect  has  to  do  with  the  inability 
of  the  sense-organs  to  record  the  facts 
of  the  outer  world  with  perfect  pre- 
cision. These  organs  are  the  result  of 
untold  ages  of  evolution,  and,  generally 
speaking,  have  become  wonderfully 
efficient,   but   they   display   surprising 


24  Applied  Psychology 

rractuat    inaccuracics.    These   inaccuracies  are 

As  fleets  of  . 

Perception    Called  Scnsory  Illusions. 

The  other  aspect  of  the  Sense-Per- 
ceptive Process  has  to  do  with  the  men- 
tal interpretation  of  environment. 

Both  these  aspects  are  distinctly  prac- 
tical. 

You  should  knowr  something  of  the 
weaknesses  and  deficiencies  of  the  sense- 
perceptive  organs,  because  all  your 
efforts  at  influencing  other  men  are 
directed  at  their  organs  of  sense. 

You  should  understand  the  relation- 
ship between  your  mind  and  your  en- 
vironment, since  they  are  the  two  prin- 
cipal factors  in  your  working  life. 


SENSORY  ILLUSIONS 

AND  SUGGESTIONS  FOR 

THEIR  USE 


Chapter  III 

SENSORY  ILLUSIONS 

AND  SUGGESTIONS  FOR 

THEIR  USE 

FIGURE     1     shows     two     lines     of    Unreliability 
equal  length,  yet  the  vertical  0rgan7' 
line  will  to  most  persons  seem 
longer  than  the  horizontal  one. 


Fig.  1. 

27 


28  Applied  Psychology 

Unreliability       In  FiguTc  2  the  Hncs  A  and  B  are  of 

of  Sense- 

Organs   the  samc  length,  yet  the  lower  seems 
•  much  longer. 

^^—^ > 

> ^ < 

Fig.  2. 

Those  things  look  smallest  over 
which  the  eye  moves  with  least  resist- 
ance. 

In  Figure  3,  the  distance  from  A  to  B 
looks  longer  than  the  distance  from  B 
to  C  because  of  the  time  we  involun- 
tarily take  to  notice  each  dot,  yet  the 
distances  are  equal. 

A .B  C 

Fig.  3. 


Making  Tour  Own  World       20 
For   the   same   reason,   the   hatchet    Bcmgand 

..,._.  ,  ,  ,  Seeming 

line  (A — B)  appears  longer  than  the 
unbroken  line  (C — D)  in  Figure  4,  and 
the  lines  E  and  F  appear  longer  than 
the  space  (G)  betw^een  them,  although 
all  are  of  equal  length. 


fumm   ""    //////////// 

Fig.  4. 

Filled  spaces  look,  larger  than  empty 
ones  because  the  eye  unconsciously 
stops  to  look  over  the  different  parts  of 
the  filled  area,  and  we  base  our  estimate 
upon  the  extent  of  the  eye  movements 
necessary  to  take  in  the  whole  field. 


3° 


Applied  Psychology 


Being  and  Thus  the  filled  square  in  Figure  5  looks 

Seeming    ,  ,  ,  111 

larger  than  the  empty  one,  though  they 
are  of  equal  size. 


Fig.  5. 

White  objects  appear  much  larger 
than  black  ones.  A  white  square  looks 
larger  than  a  black  one.  It  is  said  that 
cattle  buyers  who  are  sometimes  com- 
pelled to  guess  at  the  weight  of  animals 
have  learned  to  discount  their  estimate 
on  white  animals  and  increase   it  on 


IHIS  MAN  AND  THIS  BOV  ARE  OK  EQUAL  HEKIHT 

BUT  ASSOCIATION  OK  IDEAS  MAKES  THE  MAN 

LOOK  MUCH    THE  LARCJEK 


iusiness 


Making  Your  Own  World        o  j 
black  ones  to  make  allowances  for  the    Use  of 

.   ...       .  Illusions  in 

Optical  illusion.  s, 

The  dressmaker  and  tailor  are  care- 
ful not  to  array  stout  persons  in 
checks  and  plaids,  but  try  to  convey  an 
impression  of  sylph-like  slenderness 
through  the  use  of  vertical  lines.  On 
the  other  hand,  you  have  doubtless  no- 
ticed in  recent  years  the  checkerboard 
and  plaid-covered  boxes  used  by  certain 
manufacturers  of  food  products  and 
others  to  make  their  packages  look 
larger  than  they  really  are. 

The  advertiser  who  understands 
sensory  illusions  gives  an  impression  of 
bigness  to  the  picture  of  an  article  by 
the  artful  use  of  lines  and  contrasting 
figures.  If  his  advertisement  shows  a 
picture  of  a  building  to  which  he  wishes 


^  2  Applied  Psychology 

Making  an  to  givc  thc  impression  of  bigness,  he 
Look  Big  ^dds  contrasting  figures  such  as  those 
of  tiny  men  and  women  so  that  the  un- 
known may  be  measured  by  the  known. 
If  he  shows  a  picture  of  a  cigar,  he 
places  the  cigar  vertically,  because  he 
knows  that  it  will  look  longer  that  way 
than  if  placed  horizontally. 

A  subtle  method  of  conveying  an 
idea  of  bigness  is  by  placing  numbers 
on  odd-shaped  cards  or  blocks,  or  on 
any  blank  white  space.  The  object  or 
space  containing  the  figures  always  ap- 
pears larger  than  the  corresponding 
space  without  the  figures. 

This  fact  has  been  made  the  basis  of  a 
psychological  experiment  to  determine 
the  extent  to  which  a  subject's  judg- 
ment is  influenced  by  suggestion.    To 


Making  Tour  Own  World        n  i 
perform   this   experiment   cut  bits   of    lestmgtiie 

Confidential 

pasteboard  mto  pairs  of  squares,  circles,  Man 
stars  and  octagons  and  write  numbers  of 
two  figures  each,  say  25,  50,  34,  87,  etc., 
upon  the  different  pieces.  Tell  the  sub- 
ject to  be  tested  to  pick  out  the  forms 
that  are  largest.  The  susceptible  per- 
son who  is  not  trained  to  discriminate 
closely  will  pick  out  of  each  pair  the 
card  that  has  the  largest  number  upon 
it. 

This  test  can  be  made  one  of  a  series 
used  in  examining  applicants  for  com- 
mercial positions.  It  can  also  be  used 
to  discover  the  weakness  of  certain 
employees,  such  as  buyers,  secretaries 
and  others  who  are  entrusted  with 
secrets  and  commissions  requiring  dis- 
cretion, and  who  must  be  proof  against 


Credulity 


34  Applied  Psychology 

Tests  for  the  deceptions  practiced  by  salesmen, 
promoters  and  others  with  seductive 
propositions. 

This  examination  can  be  carried  still 
further  to  test  the  subject's  credulity 
or  power  of  discrimination.  What  is 
known  as  the  "  force  card  "  test  was  orig- 
inally devised  by  a  magician,  but  has 
been  adopted  in  experimental  psychol- 
ogy. Take  a  pack  of  cards  and  shuffle 
them  loosely  in  the  two  hands,  making 
some  one  card,  say  the  ace  of  spades,  es- 
pecially prominent.  The  subject  is  told 
to  "  take  a  card."  The  suggestive  influ- 
ence of  the  proffered  card  will  cause 
nine  persons  out  of  ten  to  pick  out  that 
particular  card. 

Turning  from  illusions  of  suggestion, 
shape  and  size,  another  field  of  peculiar 


Making  Your  Own  World        o  r 

sensory  illusions  is  found  in  color  aber-    wwat  Colors 
ration.    Some  colors  look  closer  than    ^'"'*  ^^>«''"' 
others.  For  instance,  paint  an  object  red 
and  it  seems  nearer  than  it  would  if 
painted  green. 

Aside  from  the  obvious  uses  to  which 
these  sense-illusions  can  be  put,  they 
form  the  basis  for  a  number  of  psycho- 
logical experiments  to  test  the  abilities 
of  persons  in  many  ways.  Here  is  a  test 
which  deals  with  the  range  of  attention. 
If  you  desire  to  discover  the  capacity 
of  any  person  to  pay  attention  to  unfa- 
miliar questions  or  subjects  which 
might  at  some  future  time  have  great 
importance,  try  this  test.  Have  a  piece 
of  pasteboard  cut  into  squares,  circles, 
triangles,  halfmoons,  stars  and  other 
forms.    Then   write  upon   each   piece 


n  6  Applied  Psychology 

Tesungihe  somc  such  word  as  hat,  coat,  ball  or 

Range  of  ,  ,.^  111 

Attention  bat.  1  hc  objects  are  then  placed  under 
a  cloth  cover  and  the  subject  to  be  ex- 
amined is  told  to  concentrate  his  atten- 
.  tion  on  the  shapes  alone,  paying  no  at- 
tention to  the  words.  The  cloth  is  lifted 
for  five  seconds  and  then  replaced.  The 
subject  is  then  told  to  draw  with  a  pen- 
cil the  different  shapes  and  such  words 
as  he  may  chance  to  remember.  The  ex- 
periment should  then  be  repeated,  with 
the  injunction  to  pay  no  attention  to  the 
shapes  but  to  remember  as  many  words 
as  possible,  and  write  them  down  on 
such  forms  as  he  may  happen  to  recall. 
Of  course,  the  real  object  is  to  deter- 
mine whether  the  subject  will  see  more 
than  he  is  told,  or  whether  he  is  a  mere 
automaton.  The  result  will  tell  whether 


Making  Your  Own  World        o  n 
his  attention  is  of  the  narrow  or  broad  a  Guide  to 

T  r   •  ^  \_  1  -11  1       Occupational 

type.  If  It  be  narrow,  he  will  see  only  selection 
the  forms  in  the  first  case  and  no  words, 
and  in  the  second  case  he  will  remember 
the  words  but  be  unable  to  recall  the 
shape  of  the  pieces  of  cardboard. 

His  breadth  of  attention  will  be 
shown  by  the  number  of  correct  forms 
and  words  combined  which  he  is  able 
to  remember  in  both  cases.  In  other 
words,  this  will  measure  his  ability  to 
pay  attention  to  more  than  one  thing  at 
a  time. 

Other  things  being  equal,  the  narrow 
type  of  attention  belongs  to  a  man  fitted 
for  work  as  a  bookkeeper  or  mechanic, 
while  the  broad  type  of  attention  fits 
one  for  work  as  a  foreman  or  superin- 
tendent or,   lacking  executive   ability, 


1 8  Applied  Psychology 

Test  for  for  work  requiring  the  supervision  of 

Attention  to  i         .      ,  .  .  i    , 

Details  mechanical  operations  widely  separ- 
ated in  space. 

The  ordinary  man  sees  but  one  thing 
at  a  time,  while  the  exceptional  man 
sees  many  things  at  every  glance  and  is 
prepared  to  remember  and  act  upon 
them  in  emergency. 

Having  determined  a  person's  scope 
of  attention,  you  may  want  to  test  his 
accuracy  in  details  as  compared  with 
other  men.  To  conduct  such  an  experi- 
ment dictate  a  statement  which  will 
form  one  typewritten  letterhead  sheet. 
This  statement  should  comprise  facts 
and  figures  about  your  business  of 
which  the  subjects  to  be  tested  are  sup- 
posed to  have  accurate  knowledge. 
After  this  original  page  is  written,  have 


Applications 


Making  Your  Own  World        o  g 

your  typist  write  out  another  set  of  o\herB 
sheets  in  which  there  are  a  large  num- 
ber of  errors  both  in  spelling  and 
figures.  Then  have  each  of  the  persons 
to  be  examined  go  through  one  of  these 
sheets  and  cross  out  all  the  wrong  let- 
ters or  figures.  Time  this  operation. 
The  man  who  does  it  in  the  quickest 
time  and  overlooks  the  fewest  errors, 
naturally  ranks  highest  in  speed  and  ac- 
curacy of  work. 

Look  into  your  own  business  and  you 
will  undoubtedly  find  some  depart- 
ment, whether  it  be  store  decoration, 
office  furnishing,  window  dressing,  ad- 
vertising, landscape  work  or  architec- 
ture, in  which  a  systematic  application 
of  a  knowledge  of  sensory  illusions  will 
produce  good  results. 


INWARDNESS 
OF  ENVIRONMENT 


Chapter  IV 

INWARDNESS 

OF  ENVIRONMENT 


HE  aspect  of  the  sense-per-   Factors  of 

Success  or 


_         ceptive  process  that  deals    p^a^^e 
I         with  the  relation  of  mind 
-^^      to  environment  is  of  great- 
est practical  value. 

Look  at  this  subject  for  a  moment 
and  you  will  see  that  the  world  in 
which  you  live  and  work  is  a  world  of 
your  own  making.  All  the  factors  of 
success  or  failure  are  factors  of  your 
own  choosing  and  creation. 

If  there  is  anything  in  the  world  you 
feel  sure  of,  it  is  that  you  can  depend 


43 


A  A  Applied  Psychology 

Should  Seeing  upoii  thc  "  cvidencc  of  your  own  senses," 

Be  Believing  f 

eyes,  ears,  nose,  etc.  You  rest  serene  in 
the  conviction  that  your  senses  picture 
the  world  to  you  exactly  as  it  is.  It  is  a 
common  saying  that  "  Seeing  is  believ- 
ing." 

Yet  how  can  you  be  sure  that  any  ob- 
ject in  the  external  world  is  actually 
what  your  sense-perceptions  report  it  to 
be? 

You  have  learned  that  a  countless 
number  of  physical  agencies  must  inter- 
vene before  your  mind  can  receive  an 
impression  or  message  through  any  of 
the  senses. 

Under  these  conditions  you  cannot  be 
sure  that  your  impression  of  a  green 
lamp-shade,  for  instance,  comes  through 
the  same  sort  of  etheric  and  cellular 


Making  Tour  Own  World       ac 
activities  that  convey  a  picture  of  the   should  Seemg 

t  ,1  11.,.  Be  Believing? 

same  lamp-shade  to  the  bram  of  an- 
other. If  the  physical  agencies  through 
which  your  sense-impressions  of  the 
lamp-shade  filter  are  not  identical  with 
the  agencies  through  which  they  pass 
to  the  other  person's  brain,  then  your 
mental  picture  and  his  mental  picture 
cannot  be  the  same.  You  can  never  be 
sure  that  what  both  you  and  another 
may  describe  as  green  may  not  create 
an  entirely  different  impression  in  your 
mind  from  the  impression  it  creates  in 
his. 

Other  facts  add  to  your  uncertainty. 
Thus,  the  same  stimulus  acting  on  dif- 
ferent organs  of  sense  will  produce  dif- 
ferent sensations.  A  blow  upon  the  eye 
will  cause  you  to  ^^see  stars";  a  similar 


A  6  Applied  Psychology 

Hearing  the  hlow  upon  the  ear  will  cause  you  to 

Lightning  j         t  i 

near  an  explosive  sound.  In  other 
words,  the  vibratory  effect  of  a  touch 
on  eye  or  ear  is  the  same  as  that  of 
light  or  sound  vibrations. 

The  notion  you  may  form  of  any  ob- 
ject in  the  outer  world  depends  solely 
upon  what  part  of  your  brain  happens 
to  be  connected  with  that  particular 
nerve-end  that  receives  an  impression 
from  the  object. 

You  see  the  sun  without  being  able  to 
hear  it  because  the  only  nerve-ends 
tuned  to  vibrate  in  harmony  with  the 
ether-waves  set  in  action  by  the  sun  are 
nerve-ends  that  are  connected  with  the 
brain  center  devoted  to  sight.  "  If," 
says  Professor  James,  "we  could  splice 
the  outer  extremities  of  our  optic  nerves 


Making  Tour  Own  World       An 
to  our  ears,  and  those  of  our  auditory    importance  of 

the  Mental 

nerves  to  our  eyes,  we  should  hear  the    Make-up 
lightning  and  see  the  thunder,  see  the 
symphony    and    hear    the    conductor's 
movements." 

In  other  words,  the  kind  of  impres- 
sions we  receive  from  the  world  about 
us,  the  sort  of  mental  pictures  we  form 
concerning  it,  in  fact  the  character  of 
the  outer  world,  the  nature  of  the  en- 
vironment in  which  our  lives  are  cast — 
all  these  things  depend  for  each  one  of 
us  simply  upon  how  he  happens  to  be 
put  together,  simply  upon  his  indi- 
vidual mental  make-up. 

There  is  another  way  of  examining 
into  the  intervening  agencies  that  in- 
fluence our  mental  conception  of  the 
material  world  about  us. 


4  8  Applied  Psychology 

^'TheReaV'  Look  at  the  table  or  any  other 
familiar  object  in  the  room  in  which 
you  are  sitting.  Has  it  ever  occurred 
to  you  that  this  object  may  have  no  ex- 
istence apart  from  your  mental  impres- 
sion of  it?  Have  you  ever  realized  that 
no  object  ever  has  been  or  ever  could 
be  knov^n  to  exist  unless  there  was  an 
individual  mind  present  to  note  its 
existence? 

If  you  have  never  given  much 
thought  to  questions  of  this  kind,  you 
will  be  tempted  to  answer  boldly  that 
the  table  is  obviously  a  reality,  that  you 
have  a  direct  intuitive  knowledge  of  it, 
and  that  you  can  at  once  assure  your- 
self of  its  existence  by  looking  at  it  or 
touching  it.  You  will  conceive  your 
perception  of  the  table  as  a  sort  of  pro- 


Making  Tour  Own  World       aq 
jection  of  your  mind  comfortably  en-   '^Things" and 

their  Menta 
Duplicates 


folding  the  table  within  itself.  their  Mental 


But  perception  is  obviously  only  a 
state  of  mind.  Can  it,  then,  go  outside 
of  the  mind  to  meet  the  table  or  even 
"  hover  in  midair  like  a  bridge  between 
the  two"?  If  you  perceive  the  table, 
must  not  your  perception  of  it  exist 
wholly  within  your  own  mind?  If, 
then,  the  table  has  any  existence  outside 
of  and  apart  from  your  perception  of  it, 
then  the  table  and  your  mental  image  of 
the  table  are  two  separate  and  distinct 
things. 

In  other  words,  you  are  on  the  horns 
of  a  dilemma.  If  you  insist  that  the 
table  exists  outside  of  your  mind,  you 
must  admit  that  your  knowledge  of  it  is 
not  direct,  immediate  and  intuitive,  but 


r  o  Applied  Psychology 

Effect  oj     indirect  and  representative,  because  of 

Closing       ,  .  ,        , 

Ove's  Eyes  intervening  physical  agencies,  and  that 
the  only  thing  directly  known  is  the 
mental  impression  of  the  table.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  you  insist  that  your 
knowledge  of  the  table  is  direct,  imme- 
diate and  intuitive  you  must  admit  that 
the  table  is  only  a  mental  image,  a  men- 
tal reality,  if  it  is  any  sort  of  reality  at 
all,  and  that  it  has  no  existence  outside 
of  the  mind. 

You  may  easily  convince  yourself 
that  the  table  you  directly  perceive  can 
be  nothing  other  than  a  mental  picture. 
How?  Simply  close  your  eyes.  It  has 
now  ceased  to  exist.  What  has  ceased  to 
exist?  The  external  table  of  wood  and 
glue  and  bolts?  By  no  means.  Simply 
its    mental    duplicate.     And  by    alter- 


Making  Your  Own  World        r  i 
nately  opening  and  closing  your  eyes, // Ma/zt-r 

W  CYC 

you  can  successively  create  and  destroy  AnmhUatcd 
this  mental  duplicate. 

Clearly,  then,  the  table  of  which  you 
are  directly  and  immediately  conscious 
when  your  eyes  are  open  is  always  this 
mental  duplicate,  this  aggregate  of 
color,  form,  size  and  touch  impres- 
sions; while  the  real  table,  the  physical 
table,  may  be  something  other  than  the 
one  of  which  you  are  directly  aware. 
This  other  thing,  this  physical  table, 
whatever  it  is,  can  never  be  directly 
known,  if  indeed  it  has  any  existence,  a 
fact  that  many  distinguished  philoso- 
phers have  had  the  courage  to  deny. 

Imagine,  then,  for  a  moment  that 
everything  except  mind  should  sud- 
denly cease  to  exist,  but  that  your  sense- 


r  2  Applied  Psychology 

ifMindWere  perceptions  — that  is  to  say,  your  per- 
Annihiiated  ccption  of  sensory  impressions  —  were 
to  continue  to  follow  one  another  as  be- 
fore. Would  not  the  physical  world  be 
for  you  just  exactly  what  it  is  today,  and 
would  you  not  have  the  same  reasons  for 
believing  in  its  existence  that  you  now 
have? 

And,  conversely,  if  the  world  of  mat- 
ter were  to  go  on,  but  all  mental  images, 
all  perception  of  sense-impressions, 
were  to  come  to  an  end,  would  not  all 
matter  be  annihilated  for  you  when 
your  perceptions  ceased? 

//  is  obvious  that  the  world  is  not  the 
same  for  all  of  us,  hut  that  it  is  for  each 
one  of  us  simply  the  world  of  his  indi- 
vidual perceptions. 

The  whole  subject  of  sense-impres- 


Making  Your  Own  World        r  n. 

slons,   sensation    and   perception   may,   jj"^^,./^"^^ 
therefore,  be  looked  at  from  the  stand-   -^^''"^-^ 
point  of  the  mind  as  an  active  influence, 
as  well  as  from  the  standpoint  of  out- 
side objects  as  the  exciting  causes  of 
sense-impressions. 


ESSENTIAL 

LAW  OF  PRACTICAL 

SELF-MASTERY 


^^=^Viu  'i.^r■^.'^^  ^^rnsv*  ^riT^^.'A.  j'vr^^L 
5;^^;r  ^vi^^:^  ^v^^^-^^*-^  ^vs^^*»^  ^7Jiu.M';? 

^mk  'mm  mm  mm  mm 


Chapter  V 

ESSENTIAL 

LAW  OF  PRACTICAL 

SELF-MASTERY 

XTERNAL  objects  excite  sensory 


J  J  option  and 

impressions,  but  the  percep-  opportunity 


H""^  tion  of  them  is  purely  at  the 
B  ^  option  of  the  mind. 
This  is  of  the  greatest  practical  im- 
portance. Consider  its  consequences. 
It  means  that  sense-impressions  and 
your  perception  of  them  are  two  very 
different  things.  It  means  that  sense- 
impressions  may  throng  in  upon  you  as 
they  will.  They  are  the  work  of  ex- 
ternal   stimuli    impressing    themselves 

57 


p  8  Applied  Psychology 

Pre-arranging     upoii  the  scnsorium  as  upoQ  a  mechaiii- 

Y  our 

Consciousness  cal  register.  You  are  helpless  to  dis- 
criminate among  them.  You  cannot  ac- 
cept some  and  exclude  others.  You  are 
a  perambulating  dry  plate  upon  which 
outside  objects  produce  their  images. 

But,  and  this  is  a  vital  distinction, 
perception  is  an  act  of  the  mind.  It  is 
initiated  from  within.  It  permits  you  to 
discriminate  among  sensations  in  the 
sense  that  you  may  dwell  upon  some  and 
ignore  others.  It  enables  you  to  def- 
initely select,  if  you  will,  the  elements 
that  shall  make  up  the  content  of  your 
consciousness. 

Perception  as  an  independent  mental 
process  thus  enables  you  to  predeter- 
mine what  elements  of  passing  sensory 
experience  may  be  made  the  basis  of 


Making  Your  Own  World        rg 
your  conscious  judgments  and  of  your  Huwio 

f       J'  1  .  •  Definitely 

feelings  and  emotions.  Select  it's 

Bear  this  in  mind  when  you  think  of  ^■'''"^"'■' 
your  environment  and  its  supposed  in- 
fluence upon  your  life.  Remember  that 
your  environment  is  no  hard-and-fast 
thing,  an  aggregate  of  physical  reali- 
ties. Your  environment,  so  far  as  it  af- 
fects your  judgment  and  your  conduct, 
is  made  up,  not  of  physical  realities,  but 
of  mental  pictures. 

Your  environment  is  within  you.  Get 
this  conclusion  clearly  in  your  mind. 

Hold  fast  to  the  point  of  view^  that, 
Environment,  the  environment  that  in- 
fluences your  conduct  and  your  life,  is 
not  a  chance  massing  of  outward  cir- 
cumstances, but  is  the  product  of  your 
own  mind. 


5o  Applied  Psychology 

^  ,r  r  MM         Think  what  this  means  to  you.    It 

An  Infalhble  "^ 

Recipe  for    mcans  that  by  deliberately  selecting  for 

Self-  ^  .  . 

Possession    attention  only  those  sense-impressions, 

those  elements  of  consciousness,  that  can 
serve  your  purpose,  you  can  free  your- 
self from  all  distractions  and  make 
peaceful  progress  in  the  midst  of  tur- 
moil. 

"  In  the  busiest  part  of  New  York,  a 
broker  occupied  a  desk  in  a  room  with 
six  other  men  who  had  many  visitors 
constantly  moving  about  and  talking. 
The  gentleman  was  at  first  so  sensitive 
to  disturbances  that  he  accomplished 
almost  nothing  during  business  hours, 
and  returned  home  every  evening  with 
a  severe  headache.  One  day  a  man  of 
impressive  personality  and  extremely 
calm  demeanor  entered  the  office,  and 


[ I  sing 
Unseen  Ear 


Making  Your  Own  World       6 1 

noticing  the  agitated  broker,  smilingly 
said:  'I  see  that  you  are  disturbed  by  Protectors 
the  noise  made  by  your  neighbors  in  the 
conduct  of  their  affairs ;  pardon  me  if  I 
leave  with  you  an  infallible  recipe  for 
peace  in  the  midst  of  commotion: 
Hear  only  what  you  will  to  hear/  With 
this  terse  counsel  he  quietly  bade  the 
astonished  listener  adieu.  After  his 
visitor  had  departed,  the  nervous  man 
felt  unaccountably  calm,  and  was  con- 
strained to  meditate  upon  his  friend^s 
advice,  and  no  sooner  did  he  seek  to  put 
it  into  practical  use  than  he  learned  for 
the  first  time  that  it  was  his  rightful 
prerogative  to  use  unseen  ear  protectors 
as  well  as  to  employ  his  ears.  Six  or 
seven  weeks  elapsed  before  he  saw  his 
mysterious  visitor  again,  and  by  that 


62  Applied  Psychology 

How  to  Avoid  time  he  had  so  successfully  practiced 

Wofry, 

Melancholy  the  simplc  though  foFCcful  iujunction, 
that  he  had  reached  a  point  in  self-con- 
trol where  the  Babel  of  tongues  about 
him  no  longer  reached  his  conscious- 
ness." 

Herein  lies  a  remedy  for  worry,  with 
its  sleepless  nights  and  kindred  tor- 
ments; for  melancholy  and  despair, 
with  their  train  of  physical  and  finan- 
cial disaster. 

How?  Simply  by  shutting  off  the 
flow  of  disagreeable  thoughts  and  sub- 
stituting others  that  are  pleasant  and 
refreshing. 

You  are  master.  You  can  change  the 
setting  of  your  mental  stage  from  por- 
tentous gloom  to  sun-lit  assurance.  You 
can  concentrate  your  thought  upon  the 


Making  Your  Own  World       6  \ 
useful,  the  helpful  and  the  cheerful,    Puumg 

Circumstances 

ignore  the  useless  and  annoying,  and    Under  Foot 
make  your  life  a  life  of  hope  and  joy, 
of  promise  and  fulfilment. 

You  will  not  question  the  statement 
that  what  you  do  with  your  life  is  the 
combined  result  of  heredity  and  en- 
vironment. At  the  same  time  you  doubt- 
less possess  a  more  or  less  hazy  belief  in 
the  freedom  of  your  own  will. 

The  chances  are  that  in  any  previous 
reflections  on  this  subject  you  have 
magnified  the  influence  of  outside 
agencies  and  wondered  just  how  a  man 
could  make  himself  the  master  rather 
than  the  victim  of  circumstances. 

You  now  realize  that  your  environ- 
ment is  an  environment  of  thought,  that 
your  material  universe  is  a  thing  of  your 


6  A  Applied  Psychology 

Rnmung  Your     own  making,  and  that  you  can  mold  it 
Factory     ^s  you  wiU  simply  by  the  intelligent 
control  of  your  own  thinking. 
In  Book  I.  you  learned  that — 

I.  All  human  achievement  comes 
about  through  bodily  activity. 

II.  All  bodily  activity  is  caused,  con- 
trolled and  directed  by  the  mind. 

In  this  volume  you  have  added  to 
these  propositions  a  third,  namely: 

HI.  The  mind  is  the  instrument  you 
must  employ  for  the  accomplishment  of 
any  purpose. 

Acting  on  this  third  postulate,  you 
have  begun  the  consideration  of  pri- 
mary mental  operations  with  a  view  to 
evolving  methods  and  devices  for  the 


Making  Tour  Own  World       5c 
scientific  and  systematic  employment  of     Acquiring 

.      ,    .         ,  .  r  Mental 

the  mind  m  the  attamment  of  success.  Balance 
You  have  concluded  your  study  of  the 
first  of  the  two  fundamental  processes 
of  the  mind,  the  Sense -Perceptive 
Process,  and  have  learned  to  distinguish 
between  seeing  or  hearing  or  feeling  on 
the  one  hand  and  perceiving  on  the 
other. 

Realizing  this  distinction  and  apply- 
ing it  to  your  daily  life,  you  can  at  once 
set  to  work  to  acquire  mental  poise  and 
practical  self-mastery,  the  essence  of 
personal  efficiency. 

There  never  has  been  a  moment  in  all 
your  life  when  sense-impressions  were 
not  pouring  in  upon  you  from  every 
side,  tending  to  disturb  and  annoy  you 
and  interfere  with  your  concentration 


6  6  Applied  Psychology 

Dissipating    and    progrcss.     Heretofore   you   have 

specters    Struggled  blindly  with  these  distracting 

influences,   not  knowing  the  elements 

with  which  you  had  to  deal  nor  how  to 

deal  with  them. 

[But  the  mask  has  been  torn  from  the 
specter  of  distraction,  and  hereafter 
when  irrelevant  sights,  sounds  and  other 
sensations  threaten  to  interrupt  your 
work,  just  stop  a  moment  and  consider. 
So  far  as  you  and  your  actual  knowl- 
edge are  concerned,  nothing  exists  in 
substance  and  reality  outside  your  men- 
tal picture  of  it.  So  far  as  you  and  your 
actual  knowledge  are  concerned,  all 
matter  is  simply  thought,  and  you  have 
never  doubted  your  ability  to  dismiss  a 
thought.  It  is  for  you,  then,  here  and 
now,  to  decide  whether  you  will  har- 


Making  Your  Own  World       67 

bor  sensory  pictures  that  impede  your  How  to 
progress    and    allow    them    to    harass  testily 
and  dominate  you  and  interfere  with 
the  achievement  of  your  ambition,  or 
whether  you  will  ignore  these  intru- 
ders and  thereby  annihilate  them. 

Success  is  a  variable  term.  In  the  last 
analysis,  it  means  simply  getting  the 
thing  that  you  want  to  have. 

Whether  you  succeed  or  fail  depends 
altogether  upon  your  own  attitude  to- 
ward the  external  facts  of  life. 

You  have  within  you  a  living  Force 
against  which  all  the  world  is  power- 
less. You  have  only  to  know  it  and  to 
learn  how  to  use  it. 

Learn  the  lesson  of  your  own  powers, 
the  secret  of  controlling  the  selective 
and  creative  energy  within  you,  and  you 


6  8  Applied  Psychology 

Hoii)to  can  bring  any  project  to  the  goal  of  ac- 

Control  Your  , .  , 

£,^stiny  complishment. 

In  the  closing  volumes  of  this  Course 
we  shall  instruct  you  in  practical 
methods  by  which  the  selection  of  those 
elements  of  experience  that  are  helpful 
may  be  made  absolutely  automatic. 


■*<H3fffWli 


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